6th annual SOAR conference largest yet, featuring work of over 800 students

This last week Southern Oregon University hosted its sixth annual Southern Oregon Arts and Research event, which showcased both the individual and collective skills and efforts of nearly 800 SOU students.

Select students, staff and faculty members spent the week carrying out a variety of presentations, faculty-run panels, poster sessions, artwork exhibitions and various music, dance and drama performances.

This year’s SOAR was the biggest and most extensive yet, featuring approximately 110 more exhibits than last year, including over 277 poster presentations, 49 podium presentations, 21 laboratory and studio open houses all around the campus, 12 live performances, 27 faculty panels and eight art exhibitions, according to the event website.

SOAR took on a diverse collection of talent and hard work all packed into one week, from a conversation with Richard Hutton, executive producer of the PBS series, “This Emotional Life,” on Monday to a student brass quintet performance outside the Hannon Library on Tuesday to a poster display session on Wednesday to a fantastically well-received reading of the works of eight SOU creative writing students on Thursday.

SOAR concluded with an outside theatre performance on Friday entitled “Theater on the Green,” exhibiting the talent of various groups from the performing arts department.

Several new features presented this year included a demonstration of a hexacopter used in crime scene investigations, an exhibition of 3-D printing, or the production of a three-dimensional solid object from a digital model, and even a film festival highlighting films directed by SOU students at Ashland’s Varsity Theatre.